September 10, 2020
How to Study the Book of Mormon Deeply with the BMC Archive
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
Book of Mormon Central provides a plethora of valuable resources when it comes to studying the Book of Mormon. Many of these resources are designed to make your scripture study simple and accessible. Content such as Taylor and Tyler’s Come Follow Me Insights and the ScripturePlus app bring inspiring scripture study to you at the touch of a button. However, for those who want to dive deeper and uncover new insights through research and study, the Book of Mormon Central Archive provides the most comprehensive database of Book of Mormon scholarship.
The Book of Mormon Central Archive boasts a collection of over 7,000 items, including books, articles, presentations, videos, charts, artwork, essays, commentaries, and more, all providing new perspectives and analyses on familiar Book of Mormon passages. With such a large collection, navigating the Archive may seem daunting, but hopefully we can provide a few easy ways for you to find what you’re looking for. The Book of Mormon Central Archive contains over 12 indices for organizing, sorting, and filtering the research you need.
12 indices for finding material on the Book of Mormon Central Archive.
Find Scholarship on Book of Mormon Passages
One of the most useful tools for studying the Book of Mormon, is knowing where to find research on the specific passage you may be studying. Soon in the Come, Follow Me curriculum, many members will be studying Christ’s appearance in the Americas found in 3 Nephi. Book of Mormon Central has a couple easy ways to find almost everything that’s ever been written on these sacred chapters.
The most straightforward way to find research on 3 Nephi and Christ’s visit to the Americas, is using the 2020 Come Follow Me Resource Guides. Each Resource Guide has a selection of recommended resources, but at the bottom of each page is a section called “Additional Resources.” By expanding this section, users can see an extensive bibliography for that section of scripture, organized by scripture reference.
In addition to the Come Follow Me Resource Guides, users can filter content by scripture reference using the BMC Archive’s Scripture Index. Users can find this index both as a button on the Archive home page, and as a menu item on the Archive header navigation menu. From here, users can filter content based on a Book of Mormon book, chapter, and even verse. By filtering for 3 Nephi 11, users can find over 60 pieces of content. If, for example, users want to view Book Chapters for 3 Nephi 11, they can filter by “Type of Publication,” to find probing articles exploring different aspects of this story, such as the timing of Christ's arrival with the Nephites.
Books on the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon Central Archive currently has 116 books on the Book of Mormon, fully available to read online in HTML or PDF formats. Users can filter the results by Keyword, Publisher, or Book Type, and Sort the results by Author, Title, Year published, or Most Popular. To find a specific title, users can hit Control + F (or Command + F for Apple users) on their keyboards to search for a book title.
For studying 3 Nephi, users can find in our Book index helpful books such as Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple & the Sermon on the Mount by John W. Welch, The Book of Mormon: 3 Nephi 9–30, This Is My Gospel edited by Monte S. Nyman, and John W. Welch Notes, a Book of Mormon commentary by John W. Welch.
Periodicals and other Articles
The BMC Archive has thousands of articles from scholarly journals, magazines, newsletters and more. We are currently working to organize these articles into periodical collections for easier locating and using. As of right now, the Periodicals index has 8 periodicals with full sets of issues and articles pertaining specifically to the Book of Mormon.
- BYU Studies Quarterly
- FARMS Review
- Insights: A Window on the Ancient World
- Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
- Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
- Religious Educator
- Society for Early Historic Archaeology
- BMC Newsletter
For articles that are not currently organized by our Periodicals index, users can peruse the Articles index, to search and filter by publication type, and Book of Mormon passage.
Media
The Archive has hundreds of pieces of artwork, videos, and charts to illustrate your Book of Mormon study in our Media Gallery. In this gallery, you can filter by Book of Mormon scripture passage, keyword, and media type. Users can find stunning pieces to help them ponder the beauty of 3 Nephi, such as He Healed Them All, Every One by Gary Kapp, Feel the Prints of the Nails in My Hand by Eric Stenkrona, The Light and the Life of the World by Alice Pritchett, Behold the Man by Hunter Evans, The Foretold Dispeller by Laci Gibbs, and hundreds more.
Two recent additions to our Media Gallery are the Art Contest index, and the Index of Artists. The Book of Mormon Central Art Contest is a beloved annual tradition, and is our best source of unique, Book of Mormon Artwork. The Art Contest index allows users to browse artwork based on the year it was submitted to the Art Contest.
Users can also see artwork by specific artists using the Index of Artists. While the Art Contest procures individual pieces from a plethora of artists, the BMC Archive has major collections from select artists that greatly enrich personal study and the ScripturePlus app. We have collections from artists such as Jorge Cocco, James Fullmer, Anthony Sweat, Arnold Friberg (preliminary studies), Brian C. Hailes, Jody Livingston, and more.
Keyword Index
To find content on a specific topic, you may consider browsing our Subject Index. Here you can find an alphabetized index of keywords and topics to guide your search. For example, if you wanted to see what the Archive has on the Sermon at the Temple in 3 Nephi, navigate to “S” in the alphabet of buttons at the top of the page, and then scroll to find the keyword “Sermon at the Temple.” On this page, you will find several dozen articles and book chapters on this sacred discourse by the Savior in Bountiful. Some items you may find here include:
- Welch, John W. Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple & the Sermon on the Mount. Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999.
- Welch, John W. “The Sermon at the Temple.” In Reexploring the Book of Mormon, edited by John W. Welch, 253-256. Provo, UT/Salt Lake City: FARMS/Deseret Book, 1992.
- Bassett, Arthur R. “Jesus’ Sermon to the Nephites.” Ensign 8 (1978): 58–62.
- Mackay, Thomas W. “Beatitudes” In Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
- Judd, Daniel K. “A Scriptural Comparison Concerning Anger: 3 Nephi 12:22 and Matthew 5:22.” In The Book of Mormon and the Message of The Four Gospels, edited by Ray L. Huntington and Terry B. Ball, 57–76. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, 2001.
Author Index
We have over 1600 authors represented in the BMC Archive through the Author Index. If you’re looking for the work of a specific author, this is the fastest way to find it.
For example, if you want to see the 155 entries we have for preeminent Book of Mormon scholar John L. Sorenson, navigate to “S” in the alphabet of buttons at the top of the page, and then scroll to find “Sorenson, John L.” Some of John Sorenson’s works include:
- Sorenson, John L., and John W. Welch. “The Sobering Lesson of the Grolier Codex.” In Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, edited by John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne, 296–298. Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999.
- Sorenson, John L. “When Lehi’s Party Arrived in the Land, Did They Find Others There?” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 1, no. 1 (1992): 1–34.
- Sorenson, John L. “Winds and Currents: A Look at Nephi's Ocean Crossing.” In Reexploring the Book of Mormon, edited by John W. Welch, 53–56. Provo, UT/Salt Lake City: FARMS/Deseret Book, 1992.
- Sorenson, John L. Transoceanic Voyaging: How Ancient America Became Civilized., 2013.
- Sorenson, John L. Images of Ancient America: Visualizing Book of Mormon Life. Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.
Conclusion
In addition to the Search bar on our website, you can see that there are many ways to navigate and find materials for your scripture study or academic research. At Book of Mormon Central, we are continually finding new ways to innovate and iterate the design and functionality of our web properties to help users find what they’re looking for. On top of all the incredible things you can find on the BMC Archive, be sure to download and use ScripturePlus as a tool in your study. The ScripturePlus app is a powerful way to aggregate some of the best Book of Mormon content, organized by scripture.
The Book of Mormon has an endless wealth of knowledge and insights that can come from deep, committed study. As Hugh Nibley once said, “There are three factors involved: intelligence,revelation, and hard work; and if the spirit may help in earthly learning, the mind is required to operate in celestial matters.”1
- 1. Hugh W. Nibley, “Educating the Saints,” BYU Studies Quarterly 11, no. 1 (Autumn 1970): 243.